Parliament
The directly elected Walloon Parliament was created in June 1995, replacing the Conseil régional wallon (Regional Council of Wallonia). This first sat on 15 October 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives and the Belgian Senate elected from Wallonia.
The composition of the parliament for the 2004-2009 legislature was as follows:
- Parti Socialiste (PS) : 34
- Mouvement réformateur (MR) : 20
- Centre démocrate humaniste (CDh) : 14
- Front national (FN) : 4
- Ecolo : 3
The president of the parliament was José Happart (PS), the Vice-Presidents were Véronique Cornet (MR), Michel Lebrun (CDh) and Charles Janssens (PS).
The composition of the parliament for the 2009-2014 legislature is as follows:
- Parti Socialiste (PS) : 29
- Mouvement réformateur (MR) : 19
- Ecolo : 14
- Centre démocrate humaniste (CDh) : 13
The president of the parliament is Emily Hoyos.
The new coalition government is gathering the PS, the CDH and Ecolo and has the same minister-president.
The 75 members of the parliament, together with 19 French-speaking members elected by the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, form the Parliament of the French Community. Since 1999 elections have been held together with those for the European Parliament.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Wallonia
Famous quotes containing the word parliament:
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austrian one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)